The Panama Canal announced it will maintain a draft of 13.41 metres for the next several months, "as long as weather conditions do not vary significantly from current projections".

Panama Canal noted that consistent with this draft and along with this temporary condition, an average of 32 vessels per day will be allowed to transit.

"As part of a worldwide phenomenon, in the last six months, the Canal has experienced an extended dry season with high levels of evaporation, with a high probability of an El Niño condition before the end of this calendar year," pointed out the Canal in a statement.

The Canal added it has been implementing procedures to improve water efficiency in its operations, while conducting studies to identify long-term solutions to climate variability.

Kaohsiung Harbor 1 had to be sealed off this morning (20 July), after a container ship listed and sent some boxes falling overboard.

Taiwan International Ports Corporation said that around 9 am local time today, it was alerted to the incident involving the 2003-built 1,581 TEU Angel, which suffered water ingress after its hull cracked.

The ship captain announced that the crew was abandoning the vessel, and all 19 seafarers were rescued. One of the men was injured and was sent to a hospital.

Marshall Islands-incorporated Navramar Shipping is shown in databases as being the owner of Angel, which had arrived in Kaohsiung from Dalian, China, on 2 July. VesselsValue lists the last charterer of the ship as Taiwan-based Cheng Lie Navigation (CNC Line), CMA CGM’s intra-Asia arm.

Around 8.46 pm local time on 4 July, port authorities acceded to a request from the captain of Angel to be moored at Kaohsiung’s anchorage No. 2, to await further orders. Angel had been anchored there with 1,349 empty containers, until today’s incident, which caused the ship to list, causing six boxes to fall into the water. Accordingly, the harbour was closed off to facilitate the salvage works.

TIPC requested Angel’s agent to set up at least two oil booms to prevent oil spills, arrange for water to be pumped out of the ship, and salvage the fallen containers.

A command post has been set up at the port to prepare food, water, and towels for the rescued seamen. At present, two tugs have been dispatched for protection, and a meeting will be held this afternoon to discuss the towing of Angel.

It is the second accident to hit Taiwan’s main port this month. On 10 July, the Wan Hai 312 hit and damaged some revetment in Terminal No. 2.

China's Xiamen port has begun double-berthing feeder ships to speed up the movement of containers along inland waterways in Fujian province.

Double-berthing involves parking one feeder vessel outside another feeder ship that is already berthed, and having the gantry cranes load containers on both ships concurrently.

Early this week, the exercise saw the 210 TEU Haibangda 318 parked next to the 215 TEU Haibangda 328, which was docked along berth No. 12 at Xiamen Haitian Container Terminal. A gantry crane then offloaded containers from Hai Bang Da 318, right across the adjacent ship. Both ships are owned by Shenzhen Haibangda Shipping, a local feeder operator.

Port officials said that double-berthing will boost Xiamen’s status as a shipping centre in southeastern China.

For Xiamen Port, which is becoming increasingly busy, double-berthing improves the utilisation of a single berth and terminal equipment, while shortening the time needed for ships to berth.

Containers are quickly loaded and unloaded from one ship to another, reducing the secondary loading and unloading operations, boosting operational efficiency."

Port officials added that this will facilitate the fast turnover of goods in the hinterland and have a positive effect on the development of hinterland enterprises.

Shippers told Container News that double-berthing is possible because Xiamen has long berths.

This is an emulation of Shanghai's Yangshan Deepwater Port, which implemented double-berthing on all its terminals last week.

Double-berthing is not common in ports elsewhere due to wharf length limits.

Yangshan tested double-berthing in September 2019, as port officials felt there was a need to speed up the handling of containers from so many feeder vessels. Many of the feeder ships collecting goods from Shanghai do so at Yangshan and around 90% of the ships calling at Yangshan come from the Yangtze River Delta.

French ocean carrier CMA CGM has revised its EURONAF service, which will now consist of four loops instead of two.

In Loop 1, CMA CGM will deploy three 1,700 TEU container vessels on the following 21-day rotation:

Malta (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Bejaia (Algeria) - Malta

Loop 2 will run between the ports of Barcelona and Oran with one vessel of 850 TEUs and one vessel of 1,700 TEUs. The frequency of the loop will be weekly on a 14-day cycle. The port rotation will be Barcelona (Spain) - Oran (Algeria) - Barcelona.

Two 1,300 TEU boxhsips will be used on the Loop 3, sailing under the following 14-day port rotation:

Genoa (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Alger (Algeria)

Finally, the Loop 4 will be operated by a fleet of three vessels each carrying 1,100 TEUs. The frequency will be weekly on a 21-day cycle and the rotation will be as follows:

Livorno (Italy) - Genoa (Italy) - Marseille (France) - Barcelona (Spain) - Tanger (Morroco) - Oran (Algeria) - Mostaganem (Algeria) - Livorno

Orient Overseas Container Line (OOCL) is starting new China Indonesia Service 2 (CIS2) today (20 June) to enhance its service network between the two countries.

The port rotation of the new service will be Shanghai (China) - Ningbo (China) - Shekou (China) - Jakarta (Indonesia) - Surabaya (Indonesia) - Davao (Philippines) - Kaohsiung (Taiwan) - Shanghai​.

With the new service, OOCL aims to supplement China Indonesia Service (CIS) strengthening the connection between China, Indonesia and the Philippines.

"CIS2 directly connects multiple ports in China with Indonesia and the Philippines to cater to the increasing demand in the market," said the COSCO-owned box line in a statement.